I was able to cover the Boeing 747-8 VIP delivery press conference and fly away on behalf of NYCAviation.com this week. This was technically the first Intercontinental passenger version delivered, but it is the VIP version rather than the true passenger version which will be delivered to Lufthansa later this month.

Having a job with a a lot of flexibility has its benefits! I was asked to cover the Korean Air Cargo "double delivery" ceremony at the Future of Flight Museum on behalf of NYCAviation.com. My first media gig!

When I was a kid, before anything electrical was thrown away, I was given the opportunity to tear it apart with a screw driver: alarm clocks, cassette decks, record players, VCRs and appliances. I realized that my own kids haven't had that kind of experience. Everything is composed of integrated circuits these days. If you tore apart a modern day alarm clock you'd end up with a circuit board and an LCD. Boring. Crack open the iPod your sister ran through the washing machine? A circuit board and a battery. Yawn.

Comcast has been ratcheting up our monthly cable bill for a long time now, pushing the bill for our cable up to over $100 a month! We only have 1 cable box with HD programming, but we have 3 others doing standard def. We have no extended packages such as HBO, ESPN or otherwise, just regular, HD cable. We found out that there was some strange clause that allowed them to enable or continue features we weren't using or even interested in. In any case we have had it with their shinanigans and outrageous prices.

A sudden, and very strong coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into the Earth's magnetosphere on Monday unleashing northern lights that were visible as far south as ALABAMA, an incredible storm to be sure. The storm was still active by the time the sun set here in Washington, however, the clear skies of the early evening were fully overcast by the time it was dark. Grr. You can almost count on that kind of thing around here. I kept an eye on the Kp indexes, which were still at 7, which meant it was still visible up there on top of the clouds.

For my 40th birthday, Jenn bought me a surprise tandem skydiving adventure! However, due to weather, the actual jump would have to occur a week later than planned. I've always wanted to jump out of an airplane, despite my fear of heights, so I looked forward to doing it.

Sweet! Our new XBMC box is online. It automatically downloads our TV shows from Usenet (yeah, it's still around, apparently) sort of like a DVR without needing a cable hookup. It even speaks UPNP with our Mythtv box so we can use the XBMC box it to watch stuff we DVR'd with the Mythtv box. Might eventually merge the two so I'm not running two PC's in the living room, but I'm afraid to touch the myth box after 4 years of off-and-on hackery.